In Cold Mountain, North Colorado, near to the period of the American Civil War, the Reverend Monroe (Donald Sutherland) arrives in the small town with his daughter, the shy Ada Monroe (Nicole Kidman),due to health reasons. Ada meets the also shy Inman (Jude Law),and they fall in love with each other. With the beginning of the war, Inman becomes a soldier, and his great support to stay alive is the wish to see Ada in Cold Mountain again. Meanwhile, Ada meets Ruby Thewes (Renée Zellweger),a survivor of the war, who helps her in the farm and becomes her best friend. The story alternates present and past situations, disclosing a beautiful romance. I liked this film a lot. Having names such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman and Giovanni Ribisi in the supporting cast, a magnificent direction of Anthony Minghella and seven indications to the Oscar, this movie does not disappoint. My remark is that there are some very important scenes deleted in the story and presented in the DVD. At least one of them, which show what happens with Sara, her baby and the three dead bodies in her farm, should not be deleted as it was. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): 'Cold Mountain'

Anthony Minghella knew something of the Civil War in locating his story in North Carolina. Of all the states that seceded to form the Confederacy, North Carolina may have been the most reluctant. It's Governor Zebulon Vance who is mentioned in the story dragged his feet in giving help to the Confederate government and its citizens save for the east where the plantations were never really embraced the Southern cause. Jude Law's attitude about fighting for a rich man to own slaves was not at all uncommon in North Carolina.

Which after a well staged recreation of the siege at Petersburg which when the north blew up the Confederate defenses by tunneling under and mining them with explosives did not have the desired result, Law decides he's sick of war and just quits to go back to his sweetheart Nicole Kidman on Cold Mountain. In the meantime Nicole is having her own problems just keeping body, soul, and property together on the small family farm. So the film proceeds along two tracks of Law's journey and Kidman's problems.

The stronger track for me is clearly Kidman and her problems. Renee Zellweger won a Best Supporting Actress Award for playing a young white trash woman who Kidman takes on for just board and feed to help with the farm. Without her help the farm's survival would be problematic although she has to put up with some pithy observation as well. Zellweger invests this simple character with so many dimensions her performance even without the Oscar capping it is her personal best. Kidman while not to the plantation manor born being the daughter of minister Donald Sutherland also is not used to manual farm labor. She grows in character as the film progresses.

As for Law and Kidman as well he has to worry about the Home guard, a self appointed group of militia taking over because official government machinery has broken down. Probably before the war they were slave catchers, now they hunt deserters and those who aid and abet them. Giovanni Ribisi also scores well as a young man in the home guard who declined to serve at places like Petersburg. Ribisi is some piece of work.

Besides Zellweger's Oscar, Cold Mountain was deservedly nominated for a flock of other Oscars. It's a marvelous look at the decline of the Confederacy, a cause that simply would not die quietly. In its own way the survivors are invested with the same kind of nobility that the Gone With The Wind cast was.

Why are Anthony Minghella's films so plodding? I remember seeing THE English PATIENT at cinemas back in the day and being astonished at how long it felt. Okay, TRULY MADLY DEEPLY was acceptable but still could have been shortened a little. COLD MOUNTAIN is the worst yet, as what should be a Civil War epic turns out to be a lengthy and often routine melodrama with little to recommend it.

Perhaps the novel was at fault too, although as I haven't read it I can't comment. The film is told from the point of view of Jude Law, a wounded soldier whose sole purpose is to get back home to the woman he loves (Nicole Kidman). The film chronicles Law's journey throughout, so why then do we get all the needless boring scenes of Kidman pining for him back home? Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, in comes Renee Zellweger with a supposedly comedic character and proceeds to reduce it to pantomime level.

There are elements to enjoy in COLD MOUNTAIN, not least the battle sequences which are well mounted. Law comes into contact with various characters as the story progresses, some of them engaging (Philip Seymour Hoffman),others less so; Ray Winstone seems particularly underdeveloped in a supporting role. But after a couple of hours or so it all gets rather repetitive, and you wish they'd just get on with it instead of dragging things out so much. The ending is particularly anticlimactic.